Qualla: Bathonea https://qualla.com/bathonea en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Bathonea https://qualla.com/bathonea Bathonea: Introduction https://qualla.com/bathonea/ The name is a placeholder, borrowed from a river and a monk. "Bathonea" does not appear in any ancient source as the name of a city — no Greek geographer mentioned it, no Byzantine chronicler recorded it. And yet archaeologists have been excavating the site on the shores of Lake Küçükçekmece since 2007, and what they have found is remarkable regardless of what it was called: ancient harbors, a submerged lighthouse, an olive oil and wine production complex, traces of Viking settlement, and evidence of an earthquake that struck during the reign of Justinian. Whatever this place was, it was real, and it was busy.

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bathonea: A Name Without a City https://qualla.com/bathonea/ The question of what to call this site is genuinely interesting. When excavations began in earnest, the archaeologists needed a name for a settlement that appears in no known historical record. They found two ancient references to the region: Pliny the Elder's Natural History nam...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-a-name-without-a-city.mp3 0:06 2 full Bathonea: What the Lake Holds https://qualla.com/bathonea/ Whatever its ancient name, the site on the Avcılar peninsula northwest of Lake Küçükçekmece has yielded extraordinary finds. Excavations conducted under Dr. Şengül Aydıngün of Kocaeli University have uncovered the traces of two ancient harbors and a submerged lighthouse within th...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-what-the-lake-holds.mp3 0:06 3 full Bathonea: Vikings on the Marmara https://qualla.com/bathonea/ Among the more startling claims associated with the Bathonea site is that it may once have housed members of the Varangian Guard — the elite Norse warriors who served Byzantine emperors as a personal bodyguard from roughly the tenth century onward. Norse fighters, recruited from ...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-vikings-on-the-marmara.mp3 0:06 4 full Bathonea: Earthquake at the Time of Justinian https://qualla.com/bathonea/ One of the most striking finds at Bathonea came from earthquake archaeology. Excavators identified coins dated to 550 CE alongside structural collapse consistent with a major seismic event — placing a catastrophic earthquake during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527–565 CE). B...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-earthquake-at-the-time-of-justinian.mp3 0:06 5 full Bathonea: A Site Still Being Understood https://qualla.com/bathonea/ The honest summary of Bathonea is that archaeologists are working at a significant site whose ancient identity remains uncertain. The ruins are real; the finds are substantial. Whether the settlement was an independent city called Bathonea, a community division of Byzantion or Rh...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/k/3/bathonea-wp/sxk3-bathonea-a-site-still-being-understood.mp3 0:06 6 full